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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Karlstad (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Karlstad. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Karlstad is located in Kittson County.

To see how the shape of Minnesota's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Kittson County: Marshall, Roseau, Pembina (ND) & Walsh (ND).

Below are the counties that are near Karlstad. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Karlstad:

  • Kittson County     (The home county of Karlstad)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Karlstad, with the one closest to Karlstad listed first.
    • Deerwood
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Deerwood is located in Kittson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deerwood
    • Halma
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Lake Bronson
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Donaldson
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Donaldson is located in Kittson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donaldson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 39 people
    • Kennedy
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Hallock
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Lancaster
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Mattson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Mattson is located in Kittson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mattson
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Karlstad, with the one closest to Karlstad listed first.
    • Strandquist
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Englund
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Englund is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Englund
    • Newfolden
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Newfolden is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Newfolden
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 363 people
    • Middle River
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Stephen
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Argyle
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Holt
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Holt is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
    • Viking
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Viking is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Viking
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 96 people
    • Warren
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Roseau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Karlstad, with the one closest to Karlstad listed first.
    • Strathcona
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Strathcona is located in Roseau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strathcona
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 41 people
    • Greenbush
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Badger
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Pembina County (ND)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Karlstad, with the one closest to Karlstad listed first.
    • Drayton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Drayton is located in Pembina County (ND)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drayton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 728 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Drayton <1>
    • Pittsburgh
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Pittsburgh is located in Pembina County (ND)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsburgh

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Karlstad, see our County-by-County Page for Karlstad.

Cemeteries Near Karlstad ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Karlstad.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Karlstad - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Karlstad covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Karlstad, with the one closest to Karlstad listed first.

  • Karlstad Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Pearson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Deerwood Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Lundeby Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Eidsvold Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Mamrelund Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Bethesda Lutheran Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Mission Covenant Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Pelan Pioneer Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • English Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Pederson Burials
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (115 more) ...

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<3>

While we didn't find Karlstad in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Karlstad.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Karlstad, with the one closest to Karlstad listed first.

  • Pelan
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Pelan is located in Kittson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pelan
  • Englund
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Englund is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Englund
  • Foldahl
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Foldahl is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foldahl
  • Donaldson
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Donaldson is located in Kittson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donaldson
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 39 people
  • Stephen
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Kennedy
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Argyle
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hallock
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Holt
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Holt is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holt
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
  • Viking
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Viking is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Viking
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 96 people
  • Mattson
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Mattson is located in Kittson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mattson
  • Warren
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Northcote
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Northcote is located in Kittson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northcote

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Karlstad. See our List of 1890's Communities around Karlstad.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Karlstad ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 36 newspapers that have been published in the area around Karlstad.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Karlstad. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Karlstad and those printed in the larger area surrounding Karlstad.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Karlstad.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Karlstad:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Karlstad, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Karlstad) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.